He barked out a breath of laughter. “No.”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Great question. I asked him more than once and never got an answer that made sense. It was a weird reason to break up with someone,” Deja said with a shrug. “But it literally tells you how long to cook it on the box. It’s in the name!” she exclaimed, and Alejandro could tell that she told this story often, always annoyed at the memory.

Alejandro dropped his fork, doubled over in laughter. There were tears in his eyes when he turned back to Deja, who was smiling at him. “I can’t believe…”

“Neither could I,” she said with a smile. “Like I said, the bar is on the floor, but you really are amazing.” She smiled down at her plate for a second and then raised her head. “If you aren’t careful, I’m going to develop standards for men again.”

The laughter died on Alejandro’s tongue, and his smile faltered. “Good,” he said, his stomach swirling with a mix of annoyance and happiness. “You deserve to be with a man that can do so much more than just barely cook a pot of rice. This isn’t even a question. You know that, right?”

Her own smile fell into a rueful grin. “Men always say stuff like that, as if women want to be dating useless men. As if so many men aren’t useless and great at hiding it. As if so many of us don’t either settle or stay single.”

“Is that what you’ve done?” he asked.

She sucked in a quick breath and swallowed. “Yes,” she admitted quietly. “I settled all through college and grad school for men who sometimes remembered Valentine’s Day was the same day every year and could be bothered to pick up a card. But then I moved here.”

“And then what happened?”

“There’s literally no one to date here,” she said. “Look at the demographics. This place is sixty percent female during the academic year and fifty-five percent female when the students are gone, which is also Centreville’s median age during the summer. There are no men to date unless I want to drive an hour, at least, just to see a movie.”

“I’m here,” he said impulsively. His chest warmed when she ducked her head briefly to smile.

“Yeah,” she breathed. “You’re here, and until a couple of months ago, I didn’t think you’d ever...” She shook her head in disbelief. “Best believe, every single woman on campus has a crush on you, straight or queer. Some of the married women, too. Maybe even some of the queer men, I don’t know.”

“You’re exaggerating,” he said, blushing.

She scoffed. “And you’re oblivious, apparently. You, Mike, and Johan in Physics are the single male avatars of the College of Arts & Sciences. You three could have any woman on campus if you wanted.”